Read the sell-through rate report in Shopify
Sell-through rate is the share of your stock that sold in a period: units sold divided by units sold plus units still in stock. This tutorial reads the report for the Trail Crew Tee and checks both variants, so the fast seller and the slow mover are plain to see.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 6 minutes read
The worked example
| Report | Products by sell-through rate |
| Fast variant | Medium Blue: 76% |
| Slow variant | Small Blue: 28% |
| Formula | Sold divided by (sold + still in stock) |
| Report delay | About 2 days |
Download the record: trail-crew-tee-sell-through.csv (108 bytes).
A sell-through record for the Trail Crew Tee: units sold, units still in stock, and the rate for each variant.
1Open Reports
From your Shopify admin, go to Analytics, then Reports. Click the Category filter, then click Inventory.
2Open the sell-through report
Click Products by sell-through rate. The report shows what percentage of your total inventory you sold during the selected period, per variant.
3Read the Medium Blue row
The Medium Blue row shows 38 units sold and 12 still in stock. The rate is 38 divided by 38 plus 12, which is 38 divided by 50, or 76%.
4Read the Small Blue row
The Small Blue row shows 14 units sold and 36 still in stock. The rate is 14 divided by 14 plus 36, which is 14 divided by 50, or 28%.
5Compare the two
Medium Blue sold more than three quarters of its stock, while Small Blue sold just over a quarter. The report is doing its job here: it separates the variant to restock from the variant to stop reordering.
6Mind the delay
The most recent period the report can return is about two days before today, because of data latency and processing time. The exact dates are shown at the top of the report, so read them before quoting the rate.
The arithmetic
Sell-through is units sold divided by units sold plus units still in stock:
| Variant | Sold | Still in stock | Sell-through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium Blue | 38 | 12 | 76% |
| Small Blue | 14 | 36 | 28% |
38 divided by 50 is 76% for Medium Blue, and 14 divided by 50 is 28% for Small Blue. Both denominators are 50 because each variant started the period with 50 units in total.
Held at the counter
The report lags by about two days. The latest period available is roughly two days before today. A rate quoted as today's figure is wrong by the lag, so cite the dates shown at the top of the report.
Negative stock is ignored in the calculation. The calculation ignores negative inventory quantities, which can come from untracked products or overselling. A variant that was oversold will not show a rate above 100% because of it.
Only variants that sold appear. Product variants only display in the report if they have been sold at least one time before or during the selected period. A variant with zero sales is absent, not rated at zero.
Sources
- Inventory reports — Shopify's help pages: the sell-through rate formula, the two day delay, and the rules for negative quantities and variants that never sold.